Dare Dukes' new album

 Dare Dukes' new album Thugs and China Dolls hits the streets January 29, a true labor of love that took more than 2 years (if my memory serves), including a successful fundraiser via Kickstarter, and Dare becoming a father. All the while, he was recording himself and a parade of collaborators laying down some impressive new material. For those familiar with his first record, the biggest change is the instrument selections. Fairly traditional arrangements for guitar, bass, drums and the occasional mandolin or banjo now give way to horns, strings and any number of other sounds. What hasn't changed is Dukes' ability to pen great songs, from poetic and poignant narratives to more fun and loose material.

The first single, "Meet You at the Bus" sounds like you happened to wander into a thrift store where some free-spirited musicians are there playing a bunch of instruments they found in the shop.

Meet You at the Bus by Dare Dukes

[via Dare Dukes]

The Dirty Covers compilation

Jeremiah Stuard (of Savannah-based band HOWLER and t-shirt designer/printers WABCO) has assembled an impressive compilation of really eclectic cover songs by a really eclectic set of Savannah acts like Dare Dukes (folky-alt-rock), Magic Places + Britt Scott (electronic), Cusses (Dance-Punk), Black Tusk (swamp metal) and many many more (including a re-edit of mine).
The album release will be at the Jinx on July 27, in conjunction with Rock N Roll Bingo. It's gonna be awesome. 
Check out this Fleetwood Mac cover by Magic Places + Britt Scott:
  Magic Places & Britt Scott - Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac Cover) by Magic Places

Dare Dukes live at Co-Lab

Here's a little video I shot of Dare and the Blackstock Collective performing at the Co-Lab last night. There's an unfortunate amount of crowd at the beginning, but it subsides as the song picks up.



Visit Dare's website for info on music and upcoming shows.

Alex B "You and I Both Know"

It's been a busy week, but this is just what I was looking for to take the edge off and prepare for what should be a pretty interesting weekend.

Dare Dukes, Little Tybee and Book of Colors are playing at the Co-Lab tonight, followed by Sunglasses "farewell Savannah" performance at Hang Fire later. They are about to head to Maryland to record an LP and then tour.

[By the way, can I mention that I hope those fellas from Sunglasses return to Savannah as heroes rather than settling down in another city, it kills me to watch all of our great talents sapped by the attraction of larger markets like NYC, ATL, LA, ATX.]

What I started out to mention was that this track Alex B track "You and I Both Know" is the bees-goshdarn-knees and you should check it out if you're into jacked up soul finely chopped with a dash of glitch and some serious space funk.

Visit his website for more info.

Oh yeah, the other reason this weekend will be awesome - the debut of the Savannah Record Club's Vinyl Appreciation over at  Indigo Arts on Sunday at 5pm. Come by and check it out. Lost gems and forgotten prodigies.

Also, in a side note to the aforementioned Dare Dukes, you should check out the new project featuring the Blackstock Collective (Dare's band) bass player Charles, it's called Brandywine. Live band doing laidback hip hop instrumentals. Grab a copy of their new EP from their blog. Good stuff.

They will be making an appearance at the Savannah Urban Arts Festival - the full line up of which is probably being released in the next couple of days, and which I will be sure to post, because it will be really awesome. Drop by the website for some of the stuff already listed, including a couple artists and the week's lineup.

Music at the Co-Lab

This friday, check out Sav alt-rocker Dare Dukes doing sets with Atlanta's Little Tybee and Book of Colors. It'll be an all ages show, which is nice, and the first show music show at Co-Laboratory. They've been holding the visual arts lately, and it's nice to see them branching out to help fill the need for all-ages venues (even if it's just hosting a show in an art gallery.)

Check out more on the Co-lab over at their blog, including this nice little video documenting their St. Paddy's experience.

Saint Patricks Day 2010 from Alex Farkas-worthy on Vimeo.

Dare Dukes @ the Bean 1/16/10

Is anyone else having problems writing 2010 in dates? 2 weeks in and I'm still not comfortable with it. No matter what year my hands feel comfortable typing you should go see Dare Dukes at the Sentient Bean next week end. It's kind of like those Holiday Inn Express commercials - but for your soul. You won't actually be a better person, but you might feel like one for a little while...

If you want to check out what he sounds like live, grab a copy of this live version of "Old West Broad" that Dare did on the radio in Tennessee a while back.

Some live Dare Dukes

If you aren't familiar with Dare Dukes and you live in Savannah, then shame on you - because he is really and truly the most gifted songwriter currently living in our fair city. If you don't live in Savannah, than you have an excuse, but its validity is shrinking, because he's been getting love from critics all over the world - including Canada, NYC, Belgium, Italy and others. So, not only is he coming to your town, he's coming to your country. You want to talk about painting an image with lyrics? There's few, if any, that do it better than Mr. Dukes. (And yeah, that's his real name too).

In his most recent newsletter, he offered up this little gem, a live version of "Old West Broad" (click to listen, right click to download) - the first song he wrote upon moving to Savannah - which he performed on Knoxville's WDVX with John Caselli accompanying.

His album Prettiest Transmitter of All is out now, so you should go buy it.

Pink Kodiak, Hello, Goodbye and Farewell SAV show

Just finished re-recording a new version of "Let's Get Sentimental" with Pink Kodiak. It's nice. We should have been collaborating for awhile, and it's unfortunate because the creator of Death Pop is leaving Savannah in 2 weeks to return to the corn-rich lands of Iowa — people of Des Moines, you should celebrate accordingly.

Phays & Pink Kodiak - "Let's Get Sentimental"


Keep a copy for yourself.

Next Saturday, July 25th, he'll be playing a farewell show at the Jinx along with literary alt-rocker Dare Dukes, and the newest Keith Kozel-led project The Champions. It will be a bittersweet evening of indie rock goodbyes, and most definitely an awesome show.

Dare Dukes Live May 9th with Don Chambers

Dare Dukes makes literary, alt-country-flavored indie rock. His most recent album, Prettiest Transmitter of All, which he released late last Fall, has gotten a lot of critical praise from all over the place, and he's spent the last few months doing a patchwork quilt of gigs around the Southeast and in NYC.

He is a songwriter's songwriter. His lyrics are visual and paint vivid tableaus of quirky modern living, or as he describes it, "jangly pop from the off-ramp lands of ex-urbia." Either way, it's definitely going to be worth checking him out when he performs at the Sentient Bean (13 E. Park Ave) on Saturday as part of a strong triple bill that pairs him with Rose and the Rivals and Athens' Don Chambers.

Show starts at 8pm, Dare is on at 9, and Mr. Chambers steps on stage at 10.

Check out some of Dare's music here.